Clarksville officers ambushed responding to call

Police found Jared Ballis dead in this grassy stretch of land in front of Shelly Smith’s home on Firebreak Drive after he allegedly ambushed police early Thursday morning.(Photo: THE LEAF-CHRONICLE/STEPHANIE INGERSOLL)Buy Photo

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – As gunfire cut the early morning silence in the normally quiet Tylertown subdivision, Shelly Smith's 12-year-old daughter ran to a window to see the flashing lights of a police car parked on Parade Drive, its windows shattered after a man opened fire in what police call an ambush.

The alleged gunman's car blocked Smith's driveway on Firebreak Drive, and the family huddled inside their home as police car after police car converged on the scene where a suicidal man allegedly turned his gun first on a police officer and later on himself.

"We woke up to the police sirens," said Smith, who lives at the corner of the two streets. "Then we just heard 'boom, boom.'"

No officers were injured, but the man, identified by police as Jared Ballis, 29, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head.

Smith watched as the gunman's body was removed from a strip of grassy land behind two rows of houses where a culvert runs from one side of the road to another.

"It's shocking, and I'm still baffled," said the mother of three. "It's so close to home."

The 911 call

A 911 call was received at 12:48 a.m. Thursday from a man saying he was suicidal and would kill anyone who tried to stop him.

The address he provided to dispatchers apparently doesn't exist, but it would have been located at the end of a cul-de-sac on Parade Drive. An officer approached location, parking the police cruiser several houses down from the reported address.

It appeared that Ballis had parked his SUV in a location for an ambush about a half block away.

As police entered the area, Ballis fired at least two rounds that struck one patrol car, according to a press release written by police spokeswoman Officer Natalie Hall. One round hit the passenger side rear door, and the other round hit the top of the trunk toward the driver's side. The responding officers took cover, and a perimeter was set up.

Police did not say where Ballis lived, but neighbors said they were told he did not live in the neighborhood. One said she thought he picked the location because of the dead end street that would make an ambush easier.

From Smith's driveway, Ballis had a clear shot at the police car. Orange paint on Parade Drive showed where the car had stopped and green paint on Firebreak Drive showed where Ballis' SUV was parked. Both were later towed away.

For nearly two hours, police cordoned off the area as they looked for the shooter.

At 2:18 a.m., Ballis, a former Army soldier, was found dead, Hall wrote. He was found with a .223 assault rifle and a .45 caliber pistol. The gunshot wound came from the assault rifle. Officers also found a 7.62 mm SKS Rifle in his SUV.

Awakening to police tape

Susie Longo lives a few houses down from where the police car was shot, but she slept through everything.

When she woke, she found that police had taped off the road in front of her house. She had no way to get out of her driveway and was late for work.

She was shocked first to find that something bad had happened in her quiet neighborhood. But that paled in comparison to the fear she felt when police began taking down the crime scene tape and discovered a bullet lodged in her garage, she said. Her 17-year-old son's window was only a few feet away.

"It was scary," she said. "You know how everything goes through your mind and you wonder if you should move everyone's bedroom to the back of the house. I can't believe I didn't hear it."

Case under investigation

Hall said no additional information was available because the case remained under investigation Thursday night.

According to Montgomery County court records, Ballis was arrested in 2011 on an unlawful weapons charge because he allegedly violated an order of protection, but that case was later dismissed.

Hall would not discuss motives or why Ballis chose the location for the apparent ambush.

She would not release his address, other than to say he lived in the Clarksville area.